Wednesday, 31 August 2016

'Allegro' Southwark Playhouse ****

I am certain that most people would know the musicals from
the iconic duo, Rogers and Hammerstein such as; ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Oklahoma’,
‘The King And I’ and ‘South Pacific’, but there are some shows from them that
have not been staged for some time or in actual fact never been performed
professionally whatsoever. Southwark Playhouse’s production of Rogers &
Hammerstein ‘s musical, ‘Allegro’ which receives its European premiere was a
beautifully captivating story, by the same token, the interpretations were exquisitely
acted over the whole shows duration.

‘Allegro’ is set in the USA where we are familiarised with
the birth of Joseph “Joe” Taylor Jr who’s father, Joseph Taylor Sr (Steve
Watts) is the local town’s doctor and his mother, Marjorie Taylor (Julia J
Nagle) are overjoyed by the birth of their first child. The locals of the town
think that Joe will be immensely successful as we see Joe Jr progress through
his childhood, Joe Jr experiences the death of his own gran, Grandma Taylor
(Susan Travers) and as such; he is helped through his grief by Jennie Brinker
and from this the two form quite a good bond. However, he hasn’t got any
knowledge of what romance is and has not got the foggiest about asking her out
on a date and due to the fact that Joe Jr is going to be going to university to
study medicine it appears that any relationship will be out of the question.
When Joe is at university, he meets Charles Townsend and the two form a good friendship
where Charles instructs Joe on the many methods on how to woo the girls for
example, Beluh (Leah West), on the other hand, he seems to be more concerned to
what Jennie is doing and when they are reunited with Jennie, he quickly
proposes to her and she accepts his proposal. Then again, not everyone is
pleased by his choice of woman; specifically the ghostly figures of his mother
and grandmother as well as, Jennie’s living father, Ned Brinker (David Delve).
Over the course of the performance, Joe isn’t doing so well with his career as
he is the assistant for his father-in-law, yet, when Joe is given a job in a
posh Chicago hospital where his friend Charles is working and with a good push
from Jennie, he welcomes the offer with open arms and because of this, he has
to leave his father behind. The hospital itself is increasingly pretentious and
Joe has become too heedless in his practices and is caught by the nurse, Emily
West and thankfully lead physician, Bigby Denby (Matthew Woodyatt) is pleased
with his work. On the contrary, during the countless of parties that they have
to attend, Joe Jr’s wife, Jennie becomes infatuated by a sponsors charms and
his name is Brook Landsdale (Samuel Thomas) whos wife, Mrs Landsdale is being
treated with drugs by Joe Jr no less.When Joe Jr is informed that his spouse has been having an affair, he
decides to resign from his job and return to his hometown and work with his
father, Charles and Emily in a place where the health of the patients are more
important so at the finale, Joe Jr is now proud of what he has achieved in his
work because he has proper morals and with a team that he respects, what more
can he ask for. Oscars and Hammerstein’s narrative is awe-inspiring as we are
taken on a journey of Joe Jr from his birth to his career as a doctor and with
musical numbers such as; “Poor Joe”, “You Are Never Far Away”, “Money Isn’t
Everything” and “Come Home” were so marvellous and brilliant composed and
written.

One found the performances by the company of, ‘Allegro’ to
be stupendous as the vocals from all and the dance moments were really terrific
and they really incorporated the audiences as part of the whole performance.
Gary Tushaw is gripping as lead protagonist, Joe Jr; especially how we see his
journey as a student through to his job as a doctor and it was pleasant to see
that he understood that he should go back to his routes and divorce his wife
who is rather duplicitous; also his vocals in the musical numbers were
wondrous. Dylan Turner is sublime as Joe Jr’s university friend, Charlie;
primarily how different he is compared to that of Joe Jr as he goes with the
flow rather a lot, but the friendship with Joe Jr and himself is very truthful
and exceedingly pleasant to witness i.e. the scenes where he teaches Joe Jr
about the art of seduction. Emily Bull is brilliant as Joe Jr’s appalling wife,
Jennie; mainly how selfish she comes across where to be honest she should be
focussing on the love she should have for her husband all she seems to care
about is money and forces Joe Jr away from the people that he cares about and
for her to cheat shows how horrendous she is. Katie Bernstein is nice as the
nurse, Emily West; predominantly how we see that from her introduction to Joe
Jr, we can see that she is the one that Joe Jr should have married as she makes
Joe Jr comprehend that Joe Jr needs to return to his home town and help those
who will appreciate his care.

Thom Southerland’s direction is dynamite here and with Lee
Proud’s choreography have helped present a premiere in the European continent with
such tenacity and ease as we can see that people need to think about is that “Money
Isn’t Everything” and that it is those who have helped you in some way mean
more and that it’s them who should be given more love like Joe Jr realises about
his father’s compassion for him. Anthony Lamble’s set design and Jonathan
Lipman’s costume design were exceptional as we are transported to the many
places of the USA and with the simplicity of using a contraption to move really
worked and the costumes looked so attractive and greatly made by the costume
makers. Overall, the experience of,’Allegro’ was one of pure delight and another
miraculous production produced by Danielle Tarento who is one of the UK’s most
prolific theatre producers.